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Abstracts of the Third European Congress of Andrology and16th Congress of the German Society of Andrology,Mu
¨ nster, Germany, 11–14 September 2004
N. Goncharov (Russia)A. Giwercman (Sweden)C. Krausz (Italy)
R. Mieusset (France)E. Nieschlag (Germany)
P. Saunders (United Kingdom)O. So¨der (Sweden)
F. M. Ko¨hn (Germany)E. Nieschlag (Germany)W. Weidner (Germany)
M. E. Beutel1, W. Weidner2 and E. Bra¨hler3
1Klinik fu¨r Psychosomatik und Psychotherapie; 2Klinik und
Poliklinik fu¨r Urologie und Kinderurologie, Justus-Liebig-
Universita¨t, Giessen, Germany; 3Abt. Medizinische
Psychologie und Soziologie, Universita¨t Leipzig, Germany
While age-related complaints of women have been
subject to long-standing interest particularly in
relation to HRT, age-associated complaints of
men have only recently found clinical and scientific
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Abstracts of the Third European Congress of Andrology, 2004
C. Di Bisceglie1, M. Durazzo2, F. Lanfranco1,
K. Pantazis, A. Chatzigeorgiou, T. Mikos,
K. Chatzigeorgiou, D. G. Goulis, I. Bontis and
M. Tagliabue1, M. Taliano1, L. Brocato1 and
Unit of Reproductive Endocrinology, First Department of
1Division of Endocrinology and Metabolic Diseases; 2Division
Obstetrics & Gynecology, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki,
of Internal Medicine III, Department of Internal Medicine,
Objective. Significant research on artificial neural
Hepatitis C virus (HCV) may induce extra-hepatic,
networks (ANN) in medicine has been reported so far.
mostly immuno-mediated, manifestations. It is
Although the initial enthusiasm was followed by
unclear if HCV infection itself can affect sperma-
scepticism, current advances raise expectations for their
togenesis and, thus, hormonal and seminal param-
use in decision making. As there are no applications of
eters. The aim of our study was to evaluate seminal
ANN in the field of andrology, we present an ANN
parameters and reproductive hormones in young
application in the field of azoospermia.
subjects with chronic HCV infection before and
Material and methods. A cohort of azoosper-
during antiviral treatment. We studied 10 male
mic men (n = 147) was investigated through
patients aged 35.0 ± 2.2 years (mean ± SD) with
history, clinical examination, sperm and basal
chronic hepatitis C before and after 6 months of
hormonal levels. Based on these parameters, two
peg-interferon and ribavirine treatment. HCV
classifications were made: (1) one with two major
RNA genotype was assessed in all cases. Active
subgroups – (a) obstructive azoospermia (n = 63)
viral replication and increased transaminases were
and (b) nonobstructive azoospermia (n = 84) and
present in all patients. Serum inhibin B, FSH, LH,
(2) one with four major subgroups – (a) obstruct-
total and free testosterone, estradiol, prolactin
levels, sperm concentration, progressive motility
and normal morphology were assessed. We studied
hypogonadism (n = 2) and (d) hypogonadotropic
the same hormonal and seminal parameters in 16
hypogonadism (n = 11). An ANN was constructed
having as input values of eight variables (primary
Before antiviral treatment, sperm concentration
was not statistically different between patients and
andrological disease, clinical presence of varico-
controls; on the other hand, progressive motility
cele, testicular volume, sperm volume, FSH, LH,
and normal morphology were reduced in patients
total testosterone). This ANN was a two hidden
layer multilayer perceptron, trained with static
28.0 ± 9.7 versus 42.0 ± 6.7%, P < 0.001). Inhi-
backpropagation algorithm, which consisted of
bin B was also lower in patients than in controls too
one input layer with eight inputs, a first hidden
layer with five neurons, a second hidden layer
P < 0.01). The other hormonal parameters were
with four neurons and an output layer with one
in the normal range in all patients without
output, leading to a total of 64 connections.
significant differences between the two groups.
Results. The ANN used 124 cases in order to
After 6-month treatment, sperm concentration
be trained whereas the remaining 23 cases were
and progressive motility was unchanged, but there
used for its evaluation. A correct diagnosis was
was a remarkable reduction of normal morphology
achieved in 90% of cases according to the two-
(28.0 ± 9.7 versus 19.5 ± 11.1%, P < 0.05) in all
subgroup classification; this percentage was only
patients. On the contrary, inhibin B levels were
60% according to the four-subgroup classifica-
increased in 90% of patients (101.7 ± 47.0 versus
161.9 ± 52.8 pg ml–1, P < 0.01). In conclusion,
Conclusions. Given the present software prop-
HCV-infected patients show sperm abnormalities,
erties, there is no total agreement between ANN
in particular alterations of progressive motility and
and clinical diagnosis. It is believed that the
morphology. The treatment could cause a worsen-
ing of morphology. However, inhibin B levels
proper use on large datasets will greatly contribute
normalization seems to suggest a prospective
in clinical as well as educational aspects of

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